#pretensions

The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant. ↗

— Friedrich Schleiermacher

#called #confusion #entirely #first #good

She had thought of literature all these years (her seclusion, her rank, her sex must be her excuse) as something wild as the wind, hot as fire, swift as lightning; something errant, incalculable, abrupt, and behold, literature was an elderly gentleman in a grey suit talking about duchesses… Orlando then came to the conclusion (opening half-a-dozen books)…that it would be impolitic in the extreme to wrap a ten-pound note round the sugar tongs when Miss Christina Rossetti came to tea…next (here were half-a-dozen invitations to celebrate centenaries by dining) that literature since it all these dinners must be growing very corpulent; next (she was invited to a score of lectures on the Influence of this upon that; the Classical revival; the Romantic survival, and other titles of the same engaging kind) that literature since it listened to all these lectures must be growing very dry; next (here she attended a reception given by a peeress) that literature since it wore all those fur tippets must be growing very respectable; next (here she visited Carlyle’s sound-proof room at Chelsea) that genius since it needed all this coddling must be growing very delicate… ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#pretensions #respect

He(Prophet Muhammad) was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope's pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports. ↗

— Reverend B. Smith

#atheist #bodyguard #caesar #christian #divine

Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit. ↗

— Freda Adler

#chooses #crime #ethical #group #philosophical

If they wish to alleviate the sufferings of the exploited classes, let them live up to their pretensions, let them abandon the academy and go out there and work politically and economically and in a humanitarian spirit. ↗

— Harold Bloom

#academy #alleviate #classes #economically #exploited

Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive. ↗

— Mary Douglas

#moral #pretensions #superiority

The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labour in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour. ↗

— Frederic Raphael

#criticizes #does #grapes #his #labour

They're innocent movies, and they're fun movies and there were no pretensions about 'em. ↗

— Alex Winter

#fun #innocent #movies #pretensions #were

To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous. ↗

— William Hazlitt

#extraordinary #mankind #must #pretensions #race

What encouragement the apostle holds out to us. O my friends, that we might leave all our pretensions, and come to the truth in our own hearts. ↗

— Elias Hicks

#come #encouragement #friends #hearts #holds